The six topics are accelerating renovation, promoting rapid and sustainable growth, making Vietnam a more modern country, enhancing national unity, building a transparent and strong Party, and strengthening the Party’s fighting capacity.

Accelerating renovation

The Party leader said that in the last five years Vietnam has managed to overcome challenges posed by major global and domestic economic fluctuations, stabilize the macro economy, restore economic growth, maintain political and social stability, expand external relations and integration, and promote national unity. The Party leader highlighted Vietnam’s achievements in the last 30 years of renovation: “These 30 years of renovation were an important period in Vietnam’s development, illustrating the growth of the Party, State, and people. Over the past 30 years, Vietnam obtained significant and historic achievements which proved that the Party’s guidelines were correct and creative and that our path to socialism matches Vietnam’s situation and development trend”.

Trong said, however, that the renovation was not complete. Vietnam failed to become a modern industrial country by 2020. The lives of people in several regions remain difficult. The depravity persists among some Party members while bureaucracy and corruption have not been eliminated. Stressing the correctness of the renovation and the path to socialism, the Party leader said there will be both opportunities and challenges for Vietnam in the next five years. He outlined things that need to be done to develop Vietnam toward industrialization and modernization:“We need to continue changing the growth model, restructure the economy, and accelerate industrialization and modernization in combination with promoting the knowledge-led economy, fine-tuning mechanisms, and boosting the socialist-oriented market economy. It’s important to promote this process, focus on improving growth quality and a competitive edge, continue restructuring the economy comprehensively, change the growth model and pay more attention to key economic sectors. We need to especially focus on creating a breakthrough in promoting socialist-oriented market economy”.

Protecting national independence, sovereignty; strengthening diplomatic activities

The Party leader said protecting the homeland, and people’s lives and ensuring information security , cyber security, and top national interests are the objectives of national security. He said: “The key aim of national defense and security is to bring into full play the combined strength of the entire nation, the political system, take advantage of support from the international community to protect national independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, strengthen national defense and security, enhance public trust to defeat sabotage attempts by hostile forces, strengthen international cooperation in national defense, and modernize the army”.

The Party leader stressed the need to strengthen external relations activities to deepen relationships with partners, especially strategic partners. He said: “We need to enhance our foreign policy and international integration, ensure top national interests, and fully abide by international commitments and new-generation free trade agreements in a master plan following an appropriate road map. We also need to strengthen our relationships with partners, especially  with strategic partners and major countries, effectively implement signed cooperative agreements, promote multilateral cooperation mechanisms, especially those within ASEAN and the UN, and proactively participate in multilateral mechanisms of national defense and security”.

Building public trust

Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong said enhancing national unity is Vietnam’s revolutionary strategy and a motive in national construction and defense: “It’s important to mobilize all resources and creativity of the people in national construction and defense. We aim to make Vietnam a country of peace, independence, unification, territorial integrity, prosperity, democracy, equality, and civilization. We need to respect differences which are not contrary to national interests, unite Vietnamese people at home and abroad, strengthen the close relationship between the Party, State and people and enhance national unity. All Party guidelines are aimed at ensuring the people’s interests”.

Trong said it’s important to consistently pursue Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s thoughts, and socialism. He stressed the need to create consensus within the Party, reform ideology, enhance the movement to follow President Ho Chi Minh’s moral example and prevent depravity, self-evolution and self- transformation.

The 12^th National Party Congress is a congress of solidarity, democracy, discipline, and renovation. The achievements that the Party gained during the last five years will serve as a foundation for Vietnam to move forward.